Purchasing Assessment Tool – Assessment and benchmarking of strategic purchaser skill set

Sammanfattning: According to studies, a strategically aligned purchasing strategy can increase both purchasing and business performance. The foundation for executing a strategically aligned purchasing strategy is the fact that strategic purchasing professionals inherit the relevant competencies and that organizations have tools to track purchasing professionals' performance. However, these performance- and competency measurements are usually customized to a specific purchasing function, and therefore there are few standardized and objective ways for assessing purchasing competencies. This master thesis aims to create a standardized Multiple Choice Question competence assessment tool for measuring relevant competence areas. As a first part, seven relevant competence areas are identified through literature study, archival study of educational content and interviews. Secondly, a competence assessment tool is created and validated on 143 purchasing professionals from 13 Swedish companies. The seven chosen competency areas are Sourcing Strategy, Negotiation, Contracting \& Contract Management, Cost \& Value Mangement, Risk Management, Sustainability, and Financing. The findings from the empirical study suggest that the competency areas are relevant for purchasing professionals, and that the purchasing assessment tool is a valid and reliable form of measuring competencies. This thesis focuses solely on strategic purchasing professional competencies, and does not consider any company-specific organizational factors. It concludes with a discussion on future research.